


Fragments of Calamity

by queenofthecorner



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Addressing Problematic Kagome with her Sit!, Addressing Problematic Miroku, Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Always Female Inuyasha, And she's gonna get it, BAMF Higurashi Kagome, Bechdel Test Pass, Best Friends Inuyasha & Kagome, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Development, Developing Friendships, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Smut, Explicit Language, F/M, Female Inuyasha, Friends to Lovers, Half-Sibling Incest, Higurashi Kagome is a Good Friend, Incest, Inucest, Inuyasha Centric, POV Multiple, Platonic Relationships, Sango Deserves Better, Sibling Incest, Sibling Rivalry, Slow Build, Trust Issues, Women Being Awesome
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:01:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24395422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenofthecorner/pseuds/queenofthecorner
Summary: Fifty years ago the only person Inuyami ever trusted betrayed her. Now, she's forced to help that woman's hapless reincarnation, Kagome, collect the scattered pieces of the powerful Shikon Jewel.When even a single shard of the jewel can grant the bearer immense power, Inuyami and Kagome must put aside their mutual distrust and work together, or they risk becoming just another sad tale in the jewel's miserable legacy.
Relationships: Higurashi Kagome & InuYasha, Higurashi Kagome & Sango, Higurashi Kagome & Shippou, Higurashi Kagome/Miroku, InuYasha & Kikyou (InuYasha), InuYasha & Miroku (InuYasha), InuYasha & Sango (InuYasha), InuYasha/Sesshoumaru (InuYasha), Rin & Sesshoumaru (InuYasha), Rin & Shippou
Comments: 26
Kudos: 116





	1. Preface: Fifty Years Ago

The demon repelling incense was thick before the altar of the Shikon Jewel, and as advertised, it was repellent.

Irritating as fuck, but hardly enough to make her pass out, let alone kill her, but it stung her sensitive nose and made her eyes water.

Still, the men from the village were hot on her tail, she couldn’t afford waste time whining about it. 

Covering her nose with her sleeve Inuyami darted forward and snatched the perfectly smooth gem from it’s resting pace.

Already she could feel the Jewel’s power licking at her own youki, and she was careful not to grab it with her bare hands. She didn’t want to be mutated into something unrecognizable after all.

The men hunting her burst into the small shrine, throwing spears that struck the braziers full of incense as she dodged out of the way.

The whole shrine went up like a tinderbox and Inuyami couldn’t help but smirk as she burst through the roof of the building and out into open air as the mixture of fire and repellent gases exploded, destroying the shrine and sending the men running for their lives. 

She was far out of the blast radius, when she landed lightly with her bare feet on the warm stone of the shrine steps and took a moment to admire her prize, its cord tangled around her claw-tipped fingers.

“At last,” she muttered to herself, before taking off at a run almost too fast for human eyes to follow.

She had reached the borders of the forest when she heard it.

“Inuyami!”

It was a familiar voice, paired with a familiar scent.

The scent of Kikyou’s blood. The scent of Kikyou’s rage, and despair.

It was enough to make Inuyami turn and look over her shoulder.

That was a mistake.

Just as much a mistake as ever speaking a word to Kikyou in the first place.

The arrow found it’s mark – and her heart burned where it stuck fast.

Her youki flared up in instant, painful protest at the intrusion of spiritual power, but it didn’t do her much good. 

Everything slowed to a muddied crawl, and Inukami wondered absently if this was gonna be what finally did her in, as the Jewel slipped from her nerveless fingers.

There, on the steps of the shrine, with cold hatred in her black eyes was the only person in the world that Inuyami had ever called a friend.

She’d trusted the priestess, even though she’d known better. She’d confided in her. Secrets not even her mother had known.

She couldn’t believe she’d been so _stupid_.

“How could you—” she whispered. “Kikyou…”

And then her eyes blurred, and slid shut, the spell taking hold.

* * *

When Kikyou could see that, at last, the hanyou was subdued she let her arm fall.

Her shoulder and side were bleeding freely, and she was in pain.

Dizzy and exhausted and so perfectly incandescently angry that she wished for another arrow before the last of her strength left her.

It did not matter, if she hadn’t purified the hanyou with the first arrow a second would do no better. She had little enough strength as it was and she couldn’t afford to waste it on such pettiness.

Besides, in her heart of hearts she knew that it was her own fault for ever daring to imagine that a creature such as Inuyami could care for her as anything more than a means to an end.

She took a few faltering steps forward and dropped to one knee before the Sacred Jewel.

“Lady Kikyou!” one of the men called. “You’re injured!”

“That wound…”

“Sister! You’re hurt very badly!”

“Kaede,” she breathed, turning her head to pin her younger sister with a plaintive look.

Her little sister was dutiful and well-respected, and she knew the danger presented by the Jewel.

“You’re in pain,” Kaede said, laying a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“I won’t feel it much longer,” Kikyou said, picking up the Sacred Jewel. “Kaede, you must listen to me. The jewel has been corrupted. You must take the jewel and burn it with my body. I will take it will me to the Netherworld and guard it there.”

“Sister—”

“You must do this, Kaede! The jewel cannot be allowed to fall into the hands of those who would abuse it! Promise me!”

“But you’re going to be okay!” cried Kaede.

Kikyou was reminded just how young Kaede really was.

“My strength wanes…” she informed her sister. “I am not long for this life. Promise me, Kaede.”

“I promise,” sobbed Kaede. “I promise.

And with that Kikyou could let go.

She had done her duty to the bitter end, and in penance for attempting to evade that duty her soul would continue in its task until the jewel vanished from the world.

She would never be free of it.


	2. The Girl Who Overcame Time

Kagome held up one of the new charms that had been delivered just yesterday in the afternoon.

Through the paper screens, the sunlight refracted off the little orb and for a moment it seemed to glimmer with an internal radiance.

“So, what’s it meant to be exactly?” she asked her gramps.

“This charm is a near perfect replica of the Sacred Shikon Jewel,” her grandfather answered seriously.

“The Jewel of Four Souls?”

It was a pretty lofty title for a little glass marble, no matter how prettily it caught the light.

The so-called jewel sported a tag that read “Higurashi Shrine Charm” attached with string and a cheap looking metal keyring.

“Yes, indeed, if you wear this charm you are sure to have family security and good business,” gramps said. “And although it’s a charm you can wear it as a keychain or a phone strap, such versatility for such a low price!”

Gramps looked so proud that Kagome almost hated to burst his bubble.

“Gramps, you’re not going to be able to sell these, this is clearly just a glass marble, and key chains are lame.”

“Now, Kagome,” he said, kneeling on the tatami mat that lined the shrine office. “The Sacred Jewel was once known far and wide for…”

Kagome sighed, and tuned her grandfather out.

The Sacred Tree. The Hidden Well…and now this jewel thing. Gramps always had another fantastical story about the history of this or that feature of the shrine up his sleeve and he was always willing to share them.

Kagome had never really been able to bring herself to listen, but according to the signboards that he’d posted around the grounds the shrine could trace it’s roots back to the Sengoku Era.

It wasn’t a major enough shrine to be in any of the tourist guidebooks but it was popular with their neighbours who would come for summer festivals or New Year’s shrine visits. It also had a good reputation for exorcisms and dispelling curses, so occasionally they got visitors from quite a distance away, but mostly it was a quiet little shrine.

An oasis of peace in the big city.

After her father died in an accident, she, her mother, and her younger brother, Souta, had moved into the family shrine alongside Gramps, who was the priest there and had been living on his own in the big house since her grandmother passed.

Kagome loved her Gramps, and she couldn’t fault him for loving history, but she could draw a line at listening to him all the time since his every other sentence or so started with: “Now, the history of this…”

Living in a shrine there was plenty of historically relevant things to yammer about, and when he’d miraculously run out of those stories it was on to the history of the pickled preserves her Mama had brought from the supermarket or the source of the troubles a regular visitor was having with her daughter-in-law and once even the origin of his own moustache.

He’d proudly tell you the history of all of it until your brain leaked out your ears.

“Anyway, Gramps!” she interrupted when he paused to take a breath. “Do you remember what day it is tomorrow?”

“Hmm, of course!” he said. “It was a historical moment! The birth of my first and only granddaughter!”

Of course, he could say that, now that she’d reminded him, but he’d completely forgotten last year.

“It’s a day early, but here, a present for you." 

Gramps pulled a gift box out from under the wooden desk. It was wrapped in beautiful paper, tied with an elaborate bow. He must have gotten it from a shop or a visitor, because the presentation was much too beautiful to have been his own efforts.

"Gramps, thank you!" 

Kagome was half-way expecting for the quality of the present to match the quality of the wrapping, but, unfortunately, it was too much to hope for. 

In the box was a strange, dried object the approximate colour and texture of seaweed.

"What is this?” she asked, lifting it out of the box gingerly.

It smelled like fish jerky.

“That is a genuine mummified kappa hand that brings good fortune," Gramps said, puffing out his chest. "Now, the history of that kappa hand is—”

“Eat this, Buyo.”

As she made the motion to give the smelly thing to the calico cat resting on her lap, he said: “Wah, wait, don’t waste it!” and quickly took it back.

“It’s like you don’t appreciate the value of such a charm at all!” he complained.

“Gramps,” she explained with exaggerated patience. “There is not a young woman in the world who would appreciate the value of that thing.”

“And that just shows what you know!” her grandfather asserted. “Your own grandmother, rest her soul, was courted with a similar series of charms!”

Kagome worried a little about her Gran’s taste in gifts and men, but found that she couldn’t voice that comment when her Gramps was looking so wistful. So, bracing herself, she asked: “Tell me again, about how you and Gran met?”

And he was off once again, eagerly describing the spring day that he’d been sweeping the courtyard and how a beautiful young woman had been looking for a priest to exorcise an evil spirit out of a kabuki mask.

The story carried them back to the house and through breakfast and tidying up the dishes.

Kagome was relieved when she was able to make her escape to get ready for school.

“I’m off!” she called to her mother as she passed under the shrine archway.

“Have a good day!” her mother called back.

“I will!”

Kagome smiled. The sun was shining, the weather was gorgeous and tomorrow she would turn sixteen. It was, all in all, a very good day.

Not wanting to risk being late to homeroom Kagome jogged across the shrine courtyard until she heard her brother calling. 

“Wait, Sis!”

“Souta?”

When she looked back, she could see that her brother was standing in the doorway of the well house.

The small wooden building was constructed to conceal the dry-well on the property.

According to Gramps: “That well is historically known as the Bone-Eaters Well because long ago it was used to safely dispose of the remains of youkai and other monsters, thus, it should never be approached alone!”

Kagome hadn’t listened much beyond that, but Souta, being an elementary schooler, had a more active imagination and would not go into the well house alone under any circumstances. Which, now that she thought about it was probably part of the reason Gramps told that story. It wasn’t exactly a safe place for a kid to play.

“What is it?” she asked, coming up alongside Souta.

“Buyo’s in there,” he said. “I’ve got her breakfast.”

“So why don’t you go in and get her, she’ll follow you back out for food.”

“That place gives me the creeps,” Souta said, shuddering. “I keep thinking I hear something scratching down there.”

“Yeah, the cat,” said Kagome. “I bet she likes sharpening her claws on the softer wood.”

“Can you just go get her, please?”

Souta blinked up at her with his big brown eyes and Kagome sighed. Such was the lot of an older sibling.

“Sure, sure, ‘fraidy cat,” she said.

She dropped her backpack next to Souta and descended the steps into the lower level of the well house where the floor was just packed earth.

It always felt a bit like a different world down here.

The air was cool and slightly damp and it smelled like wood-rot and chilled earth and something indefinable that always made Kagome think of the cemetery where her Gran was buried. 

The actual well was sealed up with a heavy wooden lid, topped with an ofuda and a bit of an herb that Kagome recognized as being the same stuff Gramps burned for exorcisms.

There was a light scratching sound, echoing strangely in the darkness of the well house and even Kagome felt a little chill run down her spine when she noticed it.

She huffed out and impatient breath.

Almost sixteen, and she was still letting dark corners and creepy noises freak her out. She needed to get it together. 

“What do you want to bet she’s in the darkest dirtiest corner in here?” Kagome said to herself, bending down and peering underneath the wooden slats the made up the upper level of the well house.

The scratching came again, louder.

Something brushed past her leg in the darkness and Kagome shrieked before she could stop herself.

“What is it!” Souta demanded, stumbling back from the top of the stairs.

“Mrow?”

Buyo peered out from the shadows of one of the support struts with the mummified kappa hanging from her mouth.

“Buyo!” Kagome said, breathing out a long sigh and trying to get her heartbeat back under control. “Bury that thing later, okay?”

She bent forward to scoop the cat up into her arms.

“Rrow,” Buyo complained, planting both paws on Kagome’s chest and craning her neck away to where she’d dropped her new toy.

Kagome left the kappa paw where it fell.

“You don’t need that right this second,” she explained to the cat. “Souta has a nice un-mummified tuna fancy breakfast for you.”

Kagome still had the cat in her arms and one foot on the first stair back into daylight when she heard it again.

The scratching…the scratching that definitely wasn’t coming from the cat.

All the hair on her body stood on end, and the sudden stillness in the well house felt…malevolent.

There was a sudden subtle crackle, like static electricity and behind Kagome the covering on the ancient well burst open, from the inside.

Buyo hissed, and leapt out of her arms.

“Sis, look out!”

Kagome didn’t have time to look out. She didn’t even have time to turn around.

Dry as dust, and cold as death, two hands came from behind her and wrapped around Kagome’s neck. Another two hands gripped both of Kagome’s arms. Another two arms wrapped about her waist.

And then all of a sudden Kagome was being yanked backwards and falling into the dark depths of the well.

Kagome struggled to turn in her attacker’s grip, and when she managed that she immediately wished she hadn’t.

The arms belonged to a woman’s body, all six of them sprouting out of her naked torso like a spider’s, and as if that wasn’t bad enough everything below her hips was dead and wasted as well as totally monstrous.

Her broken spine swayed and trailed behind her in the viscous darkness of the well, speckled here and there with rotted flesh and plates of yellow-brown chitin, and tiny legs, like a centipede’s.

Kagome could hardly believe what she was seeing and she was pressed right against it.

“My strength returns…” rasped the centipede woman, and as Kagome watched the skeletal, rotten parts of the creature began to grow new flesh.

“It is near…you have it don’t you? My precious gem. My treasure.”

The woman’s mouth lolled open her jaw unhinging like a snake’s, and Kagome got a good look at the repulsive combination of pincer and fang stuffed inside before her foot-long tongue snaked out of her maw.

“Yes,” rasped the woman, writhing in the luxuriant darkness. “I can taste it…”

And she licked a long indulgent stripe alone the side of Kagome’s neck and face like she was some sort of iced treat.

Kagome’s stomach roiled.

“Get off!” she screamed, struggling against the creature’s preternatural strength.

To her surprise, the thing’s grip actually loosened, and she gaped at the one arm still clinging to her sleeve as she and the centipede woman drifted apart in opposite directions. The arm was dry and brittle and had, _snapped off_ at the bicep in a jagged tear that didn’t bleed.

She shook it off with a disgusted cry and then suddenly, gravity returned to the world and she was on her hands and knees in the dirt at the bottom of the well, having been lovingly deposited at the bottom by the floaty blackness.

She was breathing hard, and she fought the urge to throw-up as her stomach roiled and she scrubbed at the trail of slime all over her neck and face.

She wished she was the type of person that swore, because if ever there was a time for it, it was now.

So, she whispered, “What the actual…hell.”

And then, more loudly called up into the square of light above her: “Souta! Souta, I’m okay, but I’m stuck in the well. Can you get Gramps or Mama to bring a ladder?”

There was no answer from her brother.

“Souta!” she shouted a little louder. “Hey! Can you hear me! Souta!”

He’d probably run away. Not that Kagome could blame him. That was the freakiest, most terrifying three minutes of her life, anybody would have run away, let alone an elementary school kid.

She wanted to run away and she knew it was over.

Probably.

And on second thought, she wasn’t going to wait for Souta to stop crying long enough for someone to understand that she’d fallen in the well.

There was a severed arm down here, her skin was crawling and she was freaking out. She wanted to be out in the sunshine where it was safe, five minute ago.

Kagome brushed the dirt off her knees and surveyed the situation.

The vines that grew along the rough-hewn stones of the well were lush and leafy and made good enough hand holds. They were surprisingly thick too, for having grown inside a dark well, they would probably hold her weight.

Taking a deep breath, she took a firm hold of the nearest vine and began to climb.

It wasn’t an especially difficult climb, and she made it too the top quickly and hauled herself over lip of the well…

And found that there was no well house, no shrine, nothing familiar.

The well stood alone in a grassy, sun-drenched clearing in the middle of a forest.

It took a moment for Kagome to pin-point what exactly bothered her about it, other than the obvious point of it not being what she’d expected, but standing up she realized what it was…it was so quiet.

The birds were chattering and insects buzzed and the wind rustled through the trees…but there was no hum of powerlines, no rumble of distant vehicles, no human voices.

It was like she was alone in the world.

Her heart started to pound again as she moved forward, following the familiar, invisible path from the well across what should have been the main courtyard of the shrine.

Only there was no sign of the paving stones that Gramps always insisted had been hewn from the mountain when the shrine was first built five-hundred years ago.

“Gramps!” she called out into the empty forest. “Mama! Souta! Buyo…”

No one answered of course, but then, she hadn’t really expected them to. 

Something strange had happened when she’d been dragged into the well, that much was for sure. Even if she’d started out at home. Now, she was very clearly somewhere else…

Or, maybe not?

Kagome caught sight of the towering Goshinboku, the Sacred Tree, still older than all these established forest trees combined. Even more confusing, it was exactly where she would have expected to find it.

Not knowing what exactly she was expecting, Kagome raced forward pushing through the dense undergrowth into the Goshinboku’s clearing.

And she froze, mouth agape, because cradled in the roots of the great tree was a girl.

A girl with long silver hair, sleeping with a peaceful expression on her face.

She was tall and slender and looked to be about her age, but she was the one of the most beautiful girls that Kagome had ever seen. Like a princess from a fairy tale.

It wasn’t until Kagome crept closer that she noticed the arrow.

White-fletched and weathered from the elements and lodged in the girl’s chest.

 _…a curse of sleep-like death_ …Kagome thought somewhat inanely as she climbed onto the widest of the roots to get a better look.

She had the funny feeling like she’d seen something like this before, though she couldn’t recall where. Some movie, probably, or a story of Gramps’ maybe.

The girl was completely untouched by her surroundings, neither her kimono nor her long unbound hair swayed in the breeze and she didn’t respond when Kagome shook her arm, or clapped her hands in front of her face.

The whole situation was bizarre…which was why Kagome wasn’t to hard on herself for not noticing right away that the girl’s ears were decidedly not human.

Instead she had adorable pointed dog-ears covered in silver-white fur the same approximate color of her hair. Carefully, she reached up and touched one massaging it between her fingers the way Buyo sometimes enjoyed.

The ears were attached. And soft, just as soft and warm as Buyo’s.

But the girl didn’t breathe. She had no pulse.

None of this made sense.

Her home had been overtaken by forest, and the only person she’d seen so far was Snow White, who obviously hadn’t had any idea what was going on outside her enchanted dreams for a good long while now.

Kagome huffed.

Enchantment, fairy tales…she was as bad as her grandfather…though she couldn’t think of a logical explanation for any of this.

Still, if she couldn’t wake the girl, she would have to find some other people and get some help.

Nodding to herself, Kagome prepared to get down and do just that when suddenly someone bellowed: “Get away from there!”

And there were suddenly arrows peppering the tree around her, quivering where they stuck fast in the trunk of the great tree. Kagome was only saved from being skewered by her close proximity to the enchanted girl. The arrows, it seemed _couldn’t_ touch her. Not anymore than the wind could.

Whipping around Kagome saw three young men, dressed in period clothing with wooden bows and foreboding expressions emerging from between the trees.

“This place is forbidden!” said one.

“Her garb is strange,” said another.

“A foreigner?”

“Or a youkai,” said the first one. “Tie her up. We’ll bring her to the Lady Kaede.”

“Hey!” Kagome protested. “Wait! You don’t need to tie me up—hey!”

The men produced a length of scratchy straw rope and had her bound hand and foot before she could do much more then squirm and then she was hoisted over the shoulder of the nearest man – probably giving everyone quite the view and hauled away from the tree.

The men, whoever they were, seemed to have an idea of where they were going, because they followed an almost imperceptible trail through the woods moving quickly.

The youngest of the three followed behind the one who was holding her with an arrow on the string, glaring at her.

“Really,” she tried to explain as they emerged from the forest. “This isn’t something to tie me up over, I’m just lost!”

“Quiet!” growled the man holding her.

Kagome obeyed, no because he’d told her to but because they’d emerged into a scene out of a period drama like the ones her Gramps liked to watch.

Beyond the forest was a patchy swath of fields with both woman and men in plain kimonos tending crops with wooden rakes and hoes. Beyond that was a small village of wooden huts with thatched roofs where everyone was going about their daily business minding children, handing laundry, repairing buildings…like everything around them was normal and expected.

Well, except for Kagome.

They stared shamelessly at Kagome, rubbernecking as the men brought her into the village and dumped her on a lone stretch of airing tatami mat.

“They found her in the forest of Inuyami,” she heard one woman whisper.

“She wears strange clothing.”

“A foreigner?”

“Wonder if she’s a spy.”

“If so, you think another war’s gonna start?”

“Right in the middle of planting season…”

“You think she’s some sort of kitsune in disguise?”

“Nah, them shape-changing foxes are a lot trickier than that.”

“Careful. Don’t get too close.”

Kagome listened to all these observations, and more, as the people of the village gathered at what she could only assume they thought was a safe distance.

She tried to test the ropes around her hands but they had no give to them, and the course weave cut into her wrists painfully. Though she admitted she might have given up with less of a fight than she would normally have made because a strange thought had passed through her head. And that thought was that it seemed like she’d gone back in time.

It was a crazy thought. A stupid thought. Not something that happened outside of movies and manga.

But…even more crazily, the explanation just fit.

If she’d travelled back to before the shrine was built that would explain why the area was a forest but the well and tree both still existed and as for this village…

Well, everything in it was like something out of a samurai movie. She’d never seen anyone in such plain kimonos that wasn’t a period actor and without a single sign of modern technology or production crew she couldn’t even delude herself into believing she was on a movie set.

It was then that she noticed that the sun was getting low in the sky.

Another impossible feat since it hadn’t even been half-past seven when she left the house that morning for school! None of it made sense.

When the men who’d first captured her returned, they had with them an old woman in tow.

She was somewhat overweight and dressed in the white and red garb of a miko. Her long grey hair was tied back from her weathered face and she carried a bow and quiver of arrows over one shoulder. She’d lost an eye at some point, Kagome guessed, because she wore a black eyepatch and her remaining eyes shone with a fierce light.

“Lady Kaede,” said one of the men. “This is it, the creature we found in the forest of Inuyami.”

“Hey!” Kagome protested. “I’m no creature!”

“Are ye not?” said the old miko in a low, pleasant voice. “Then tell me child, who are you and what were ye doing in the forest of Inuyami?”

“I already said I was just lost!”

“A likely tale,” snorted the man at Lady Kaede’s shoulder. “If she’s no youkai, she’s probably a spy from another land.”

“In that case, she’d be a fool,” said Kaede, though from the withering look she directed at the man she seemed to say that he was the fool. “Who would bother to invade a village as poor as ours? Or to send a spy in such obviously foreign garments?”

“I’m not a spy!” Kagome interjected, squirming up onto her knees. “I’m not a spy or a youkai or a kitsune or a mononoke—I need help to find my way home!”

Not that she was entirely sure that anyone could help her with that at this point but she really couldn’t let them keep thinking she was some sort of spy or evil spirit.

Something about her face caught the miko’s attention and the woman squinted at her thoughtfully.

“Remain still, child. Let me get a good look at ye…”

Kagome submitted to having her face cupped in the old woman’s dry weathered hands, and examined from every angle.

“It is there, though I know not why,” said Kaede, and if Kagome wasn’t imagining things, she’d say that her voice trembled just a bit. “You bear more than a passing resemblance to my long-departed sister, Kikyou.”

“Your sister?” Kagome said.

She could hear the skepticism thick in her own voice, and winced at her own rudeness. But Kaede was not offended. Instead she knelt and cut Kagome free from her bonds with a small knife she likely used to clip herbs.

Kagome rubbed some circulation back into her hands.

“Come, child,” she said. “We will speak in my home.”

“Lady Kaede,” said one of the men who’d captured her. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“If the girl is some malevolent youkai, I can assure ye I am the more worthy opponent,” she told the man.

“As you say, priestess.”

“Come.”

Not seeing any better options Kagome followed Kaede back to her hut at the edge of the village, closer to the forest. It was bigger than the other huts, but the inside was more or less bare of trappings. The bedding was put away and neatly and drying bundles of strange herbs hung from the roof.

Right above the door was an herb Kagome recognized from its shape and smell, if not its name. The same herb her Gramps always claimed would ward off evil.

Kagome reached up and touched it and found that Kaede was watching her with a serious expression as she knelt by her fire and ladled a bit of thin stew into a handmade clay bowl.

“So, ye truly are not a youkai,” said Kaede, handing her the bowl. “That makes things simpler, and more difficult. Bear us no ill will, child. For though I now see ye mean no harm, in these troubled times we cannot allow strangers to come among us without deep distrust.”

“No, it’s fine. I mean, it’s not exactly fine, but I get it. You said…” Kagome started, unsure how to phrase her desperation for any kind of information that might help her get out of this weird situation. “You said that I look a lot like your sister?”

“Yes,” agreed Kaede. “Ye are the near-perfect image of my elder sister, Kikyou. She was the miko who protected this village before myself. She bore a strong will and a spiritual power to which I could not compare…and she had a pure heart…It was fifty years ago now, nearly to the day that she was killed following a battle with the Inuyami.”

“Inuyami?” Kagome mused.

“Ye would have passed her resting place in the forest, sealed to the great tree…”

_The silver-haired princess…_

“Ye were foolish to wander alone into that place,” Kaede told her plainly. “Yet, I cannot fault ye for I believe I sense the hand of destiny upon ye.”

“Destiny?”

“My sister died with an unfinished burden on her soul,” Kaede said, quietly. “I would not be surprised to learn that ye are her reincarnation. A restless soul is known to drive people to perform strange feats.”

Was that known?

Kagome certainly had never heard such a woolly statement before and she lived in a shrine with the chattiest priest that ever lived.

“Will ye not eat?”

Kagome startled from her thoughts but quickly sat down across from Kaede and was handed a bowl. She took a sip and was surprised to find it warm and delicious if a little thin and plain.

Sitting there, helping herself to the dinner of a woman her grandfather’s age Kagome straightened up a bit remembering her manners.

“Thank you for the meal, Lady Kaede, it is kind of you to spare your food.”

“Is it kindness when it is simple duty, child?” chuckled the old woman. “Ye said ye were lost and wandering in the forest of Inuyami, where is it ye are meant to be?”

Kagome took another cautious swallow of stew.

“I don’t suppose you’ve heard of a place called Tokyo?” she asked.

“Toukyou…” parroted Kaede. “Nay, child, if there is such a place nearby, I have not heard of it.”

“I figured.”

“Your manner of speech is odd and your clothing even more so, I have the sense that wherever this land is, it is far from here.”

“Yeah, I guess that sounds about right,” said Kagome, feeling her shoulders slump. “And if that’s the case, I have no idea how to get home…”

“I do not mean to alarm ye, girl, but perhaps your homeland is not where ye are meant to be?” suggested Kaede. “Kikyou’s soul may have returned ye to this place for some purpose.”

Kagome made a polite humming noise and took another sip from her bowl to conceal the downturn of her mouth.

She didn’t want to disparage the old woman’s theories but wasn’t the whole point of reincarnation to let a soul move on and grow? The kind of soul that would drag a new body through time for some mysterious unfinished business didn’t seem like the kind of soul that would be allowed to reincarnate.

And what was her life coming to that she was thinking about the logic behind reincarnation and time travel and souls?

Sighing heavily, Kagome set down her stew and thought carefully about how to phrase her next question.

“Lady Kaede—”

The old priestess held up a hand for silence, head cocked as if she’d heard something.

Kagome strained her ears for a long moment before she heard it too.

In the distance a snap and crunch like something breaking—and then, suddenly closer, a piercing shriek.

Kaede was on her feet and out the door with more speed than Kagome would have credited her given her size and age.

Kagome followed, not sure what she could do but unwilling to sit alone and wait until it was all over.

“What is happening!” Kaede called.

“It’s a monster! We’re under attack!” someone called back.

Something huge came flying out of the darkness and Kagome leapt back with a shriek.

It was the body of a horse, still thrashing, and spraying blood everywhere. Something with massive jaws had taken a bite out of it’s flank exposing the white of its ribs.

Kagome recoiled and moved closer to Kaede.

In front of them the men of the village shot arrows at a familiar beast, the centipede woman from the well.

She looked much livelier with her bare spine once again fully covered by flesh, but Kagome could tell it was that same creature because she was missing the one arm.

The ragged tear of her bicep had closed over, but the arm had not regenerated with her bug-like lower half.

Look at the creature Kagome couldn’t help but think of the words the villagers had thrown around that afternoon.

Mononoke. Youkai.

This was what they meant, she realized, a being like the centipede woman. Something that shouldn’t exist in the real world…but somehow did.

The youkai woman thrashed the coils of her long, segmented body as she gleefully tore open a struggling cow, and the force of the movement all-but levelled one of the villagers’ huts.

The men threw spears and shot arrows, but the centipede woman was undaunted, shaking them off as though they were flies.

If this kept up someone was going to be seriously injured. Or the village would burn to the ground, already there was a fire spreading.

Kagome watched as the cow was discarded with the same lack of care that the horse had been treated with, and as the centipede woman cast about for more prey her eyes fell on Kagome.

“I found you,” she said, and a wide delighted smile split her bone white face. “Give me the jewel! I must have it!”

Without waiting for Kagome to try and do as she had demanded; the youkai woman made a dive for her.

Kagome shrieked and threw her arms up to protect her head as the youkai passed above her head, close enough to touch.

“The Shikon Jewel! Give it to me!”

“Did she say the Shikon Jewel?” Kaede demanded, grabbing Kagome’s wrist in a grip like a vice. “Do ye carry it still?”

“No!” Kagome protested. “Until this morning I’d never even heard of the thing!”

A few of the village men retreated to join her and Kaede at the edge of the fray.

“Lady Kaede,” one of the men said, breathing heavily. “Spears, arrows, fire—nothing works!”

“What can we do?”

“There is no alternative. We must lure it to the dry well!” Kaede said sharply.

“The well…”

Kaede met her gaze.

“There is a well in the forest of Inuyami that has the ability to suppress the power of youkai,” she explained. “Ye know it.”

It wasn’t a question.

Kagome did know it, after all, how many well’s with magical powers could there be in a single forest.

The centipede woman wanted her because she thought she had the Shikon Jewel for some reason. If that was the case then she could lure it away from the village.

“If I can get it in the well, will it stop?” she asked the old priestess seriously.

“It is our only chance,” Kaede replied.

Kagome swallowed hard, and nodded.

“Which way?”

Kaede fixed her with a piercing look, but gestured to the dirt track that led eastwards through the fields, toward the woods. The trees were bathed with unearthly light which was freaky but at least it meant she’d be able to see where she was going. 

“There,” she said. “If ye follow straight from that path the well will be before ye.”

“Towards the lights, got it.”

And then Kagome began to run.

She thought she heard Kaede beckon for her to wait, but she couldn’t stop now. If she stopped now, she’d never start again, and if one of the villagers died because she’d brought some monster into their town, she would never forgive herself.

There was no need to call out for the youkai to follow her, as soon as Kagome took off into the fields the centipede woman was in pursuit.

Kagome could hear her rasping taunts and the skittering of her many legs, though she couldn’t afford to pay them any attention.

Kagome knew how to win a race.

From kindergarten all the way through middle school she was the best runner in her class, always winning ribbons at the sports’ festival in track, the key to victory at running was focus.

Running through the fields in the dead of night, Kagome felt like she was flying.

Her heart pounded arrhythmically and her breath came in desperate pants but the adrenaline was coursing through her veins like liquid fire giving her strength and speed and narrow-eyed focus.

She was like the wind.

She would make it.

She had to make it.


	3. Freedom and Subjugation

Inuyami had sunken, down to a place where no light could reach and she felt she had been there for a while.

But there was something.

Beyond the muddy darkness, there was fire and light, and a familiar scent.

Her youki strained and the pain increased, but with the pain was life.

Her heart began to beat, slow and heavy like it was pumping sand instead of blood, and each beat sent a white-hot spear of pain lancing through her chest.

But there was something more important than the pain.

That scent…the scent of the woman who’d betrayed her.

Kikyou.

Her fingers curled as she flexed her claws. She could feel them moving.

She could move.

The seal was wearing thin in places. She could sense it as her youki thrashed against its confines.

She could wake up. Maybe even break free.

Inuyami grit her teeth against the effort, feeling her jaw clench and grind and then drew in a long gasp of air, and opened her eyes.

The steps of the shrine were gone, and instead all around her was forest and the reek of low-level youkai moving around in the darkness.

She could feel that the arrow was still in her and gingerly she reached for it, only to yank her hand back just as quickly as the spell flared. 

Shit.

The remaining energy was concentrated in the arrow. If she couldn’t get it out, she’d have to go back to sleep or the glorified splinter would become a slow-acting poison and might actually manage to kill her this time.

Beyond her tree, there was some sort of battle going on. Inuyami could smell it even from here.

The familiar stench of blood, fire and human fear.

And from the sounds of it the battle was coming to her.

A nasty smirk curled her mouth.

Just beyond the clearing a woman screamed and she caught a glimpse of the attacking youkai, Mistress Centipede, before Kikyou was flung through the air to land at her feet.

Inuyami almost couldn’t believe her luck. She had a feeling she’d spent a lot of time dreaming about this moment.

Kikyou was sprawled out on the ground at her feet, breathing hard.

Her hair was a little different and she was wearing the ugliest kimono that Inuyami had ever seen, but there was no mistaking the smell of her blood.

She hadn’t noticed her yet.

Well, they couldn’t have that.

“Oi, Kikyou, what the fuck are you doing toying around with that overgrown bug?” she said. “Just do her in one shot, like you did with me.”

That got her attention.

Kikyou tipped her head up and Inuyami was treated to a surprisingly soft look.

“You’re…awake.”

Inuyami’s lips curled away from her fangs in a twisted mockery of a smile.

“Looks like you’re gonna have to try harder if you actually wanna kill me, Kikyou,” she said, trying to goad that vacant expression off her face. “’Course, if you’re having trouble with that belly-crawling sleeze, Mistress Centipede, maybe you’re not up for it anymore. The Kikyou I remember wouldn’t waste any time.”

That did it.

Kikyou’s eyes narrowed, and she got to her feet.

“Kikyou, Kikyou, Kikyou,” she spat. “That’s all I’ve been hearing since I was dropped into this weird place but, guess what, Sleeping Snippy—I’m not her!”

Inuyami scoffed.

A shapeshifting youkai could fake a face. A sibling or a child might bear a resemblance, but Inuyami had never heard of anything able to fake a smell. There were too many variables.

The girl smelled of clean-sweat, jasmine and reiki. Kikyou’s scent.

Of course, her smell was nearly overpowered by that of the centipede youkai stalking her through the forest.

Like flipping over a rotting plank and finding a nest of cockroaches, she stunk of damp and mold and insectoid musk, as well as drying blood.

Her nose twitched.

Mistress Centipede came down from the tops of the tree fast enough that she might as well have been falling.

Inuyami was almost impressed that Kikyou was able to dodge away and keep from getting hit. She’d never seen Kikyou actually get her hands dirty and fight with an opponent. Her power was strong enough that she pretty much never needed to.

Of course, then the villagers arrived and the fun was over.

They threw harpoons that stuck fast into the youkai’s bare back, and hauled her away from the cringing priestess.

“Pull!” cried the biggest of the bunch.

The ropes creaked with the strain, but the bug went down, cursing in her grating raspy voice.

Kikyou slumped back down into the grass with obvious exhaustion.

Fucking pathetic.

“The mighty priestess Kikyou, reduced to this, saved from a belly-crawling bottom-feeder by a bunch of human men. You truly are pitiful.”

“This from the person who can’t even tell two different women apart,” she retorted, whipping around and hissing like a cat with her tail trodden on.

And as she stomped forward in the grass, her face actually flushed and twisted by anger, Inuyami began to doubt her own nose, just a little.

Cause Kikyou didn’t get angry like this. When she was pissed, she went ice cold and wouldn’t talk to you for days except to insist that nothing was wrong and she wasn’t mad at all.

This chick was practically bristling with offense. Even the most nose-blind human couldn’t mistake it.

But then again, what did she know? She’d thought she understood Kikyou, and she’d been wrong. The arrow in her chest was proof of that.

“Are you listening? I’m going to say it slowly so you can keep up!” she snapped. “My name is Kagome. Got that? Ka. Go. Me.”

She got close enough that Inuyami could make out a faint dusting of freckles across the bridge of her nose. She also got another nose-full of her scent and under the cloying scent of jasmine and reiki there was something else…something a lot warmer.

“Huh,” Inuyami said, a bit taken aback. “Whaddaya know, you’re not her.”

“I told you!”

“You sure do stink like her though,” Inuyami said, a bit carelessly. “What did you do? Roll in jasmine all afternoon?”

Or maybe she been with Kikyou? A new apprentice…a daughter?

Not that she cared.

All that talk Kikyou spouted about their kids growing up together, close as siblings, that was all just bullshit the priestess had said to get her to lower her guard.

None of it meant a thing.

A shriek from the girl, snapped Inuyami out of her thoughts.

Mistress Centipede had broken free of the villagers’ hold, and had gone straight for the dumbass newbie priestess.

The girl fisted both hands in Inuyami’s kimono to keep from being pulled away and Inuyami winced as the tugging upset the spelled arrow.

“Ow, fucking stop that!”

“Are you kidding me?” shrieked the girl, clinging tighter.

“Give it to me!” rasped Mistress Centipede. “Give me the jewel.”

Another group of villagers came riding into the clearing, one of them an old miko.

“Inuyami has revived,” cried one of the men.

Like it was her they had to worry about when she was still nailed to the tree and there was another youkai right in front of them more willing and able to make them a midnight snack.

“Stubborn girl,” hissed the centipede woman, her jaw unhinging like a snake’s to reveal an impressive maw of fangs and clicking pincers. “Give me the Shikon Jewel!”

The Shikon Jewel?

Of course.

Inuyami could have laughed.

Kikyou had abandoned her sworn duty to this girl, her helpless, hapless replacement. Strong in reiki, but real low on experience.

That suspicion was only confirmed when she threw out her hand and her reiki flared spraying out of her in an uncontrolled wave, potent enough to hack Mistress Centipede’s creepy arms right off her body and then collapsed in a heap at the base of the tree…again.

The villagers were all slack-jawed and impressed of course, that was probably how the girl had been entrusted with the job in the first place, but she was all strength and no control. And she wasn’t as strong as Kikyou.

Frankly, she didn’t stand a chance.

That was fine by Inuyami. If it dragged Kikyou out of a peaceful retirement long enough for her to put the conniving priestess in the grave herself, so much the better.

Mistress Centipede struck again, and the girl screamed as the youkai tore open her side and flung her through the air. She was lucky she didn’t have her back broken, bouncing off the centipede woman’s springy chitin before hitting the ground again.

The girl didn’t hold her attention for long though, not when the Shikon Jewel slipped, unblemished and glowing with pure light, from her body to bounce on the forest floor.

With that jewel Inuyami could get off this damn tree and do something about that stinking centipede. Without it she was useless.

“Hey, give me that jewel!” she told the girl, slumped at her feet again with blood soaking through the white of her garment like spilled wine, poor wretch. “Hurry!”

The girl stirred long enough to give her a dazed look and then she was scooped up by the drag of Mistress Centipede’s coils, and trapped against Inuyami’s body.

Almost lazy now that her quarry was trapped and the jewel had been located, Mistress Centipede leaned forward.

“I had heard that some feral half-blood was after the gem,” she said with a low chuckle. “Was it you then, mongrel?”

“Half’s more than I need to deal with your scaly hide, anything more than that would be overkill, and I mean that literally,” said Inuyami, baring her fangs in a tight smile.

“Is that true?” demanded the hapless priestess, squirming.

“Hm?”

“You talk big, but can you actually beat her?”

“What can she do?” laughed Mistress Centipede. “Pinned to there like that, she can’t even move. All that power she claims to have, sealed away by the Shikon priestess long ago. You are helpless to stop me.”

Her long tongue lolled out of her mouth and snaked around the Shikon jewel and without even pausing the bitch swallowed the thing whole.

“Idiot,” sighed Inuyami.

The youkai’s body rippled and twitched as all six of her arms flew back to her body and reattached themselves with a pulse of red corruption.

Mistress Centipede hummed in all apparent ecstasy as her bone white skin spilt open in one great rent, taking what little beauty she could claim, and leaving a flayed, skeletal monster mottled purple and grey with bulging red bug-eyes.

It was the mistake that all lesser youkai made when they laid hands on the jewel. They let it react with their youki unchecked, and lost all control of their power and body.

Luxuriating in the sudden surge of strength by writhing in all appearance of pleasure, Mistress Centipede used her coils to crush the hapless priestess against her body. Her fragile human bones would be the first things to snap.

Inuyami almost felt sorry for her, but the centipede was right. With her youki sealed away Inuyami was useless.

She blinked and looked down at the struggling priestess, as the thought occurred to her.

The girl was a mess, but she had power, between her youki and the girl’s reiki they should be able to break Kikyou’s spell.

“Hey,” she asked. “Can you get this arrow out?”

The girl coughed and struggled, “Wha—”

“The arrow! Can you get it outta me?”

The girl grunted something that might’ve been a yes and wrapped her hand around the shaft of the arrow.

And fuck, even that much burned like she’d swallowed a coal.

“Nay, child!” came the sharp voice of the old miko. “Ye must not free Inuyami!”

“In case you haven’t noticed old woman, you’re better off taking your chances with me because that thing is gonna eat you!” she barked back.

She brought her youki to bear, coiling it in her chest feeling the burn coalesce around her heart. She looked down at the hapless priestess, meeting her doe-eyed gaze with a cool challenge.

“What’s it gonna be, kid? You ready to die here with me?”

That sparked something.

She could see it in the girl’s eyes, the fire that sprang to life there.

“Not a chance,” she wheezed. “I choose, life!”

And she yanked on the arrow.

Time slowed to a crawl.

Inuyami felt the girls cry, it echoed somewhere between her ears and her bones. And her reiki, so different from Kikyou’s, was there, in her blood, grinding hard and sharp like shards glass against the desperate push of her youki.

“Live!” screamed the girl.

The spell snapped all of a sudden and time started again.

One slow throbbing heartbeat at a time.

She hadn’t realized how muted her senses had been until they sharpened, and the world came rushing back in like a wave crashing against the shore.

The girl called her name…

“Inu…yami?”

A wild cackle of laughter spilled out of her, and the centipede youkai gave a feral shriek and promptly redoubled her efforts to crush them.

Her pent up youki flared with gold in the darkness, and the coils were torn to shreds by its potency.

Living had never felt so good.

She did a flip just for the hell of it, and landed lightly on the balls of her feet, her bare toes squishing in the night-damp grass.

“Wicked brat!” screed the centipede, rushing at her. 

“Nasty hag!”

She gathered her youki with a flex of her claws and leapt forward to meet her attack.

Even augmented by the jewel, the creature’s flesh parted around her claws like melting butter as she flayed the monster clean in half, and then watched with feral satisfaction as the separate pieces crumbled and scattered.

“Ugh,” groaned the Kikyou look-alike. “It’s still moving.”

“Quickly, child!” the old priestess, instructed. “Ye must find the piece of flesh which holds the jewel, or this foul creature will endlessly regenerate!”

“You’ve got to be kidding,” moaned the girl, whipping her head around frantically, one hand pressed tightly against her ruined side. “There!”

As Inuyami watched, the elder priestess took hold of the jewel, and what was left of Mistress Centipede’s flesh turned to dust, leaving only shattered bones. 

“Here,” she said, handing over the jewel to her younger counterpart. “Only ye may possess the Shikon Jewel.”

In the hapless priestess’ hands, the jewel pulsed with pure light, much like it had in Kikyou’s possession, any lingering curl of youki burned away.

“This jewel…makes youkai stronger,” mused the girl. “Why was such a thing inside my body?”

“Exactly,” said Inuyami, stretching and cracking her neck, enjoying the way the light breeze stirred her hair. “Human’s can’t use it, so why bother to keep it. Hand it over now and I’ll consider our debt squared and be on my way.”

“Pay no heed to Inuyami, child,” said the old priestess, sharply. “Ye must not hand over that jewel!”

Inuyami snorted.

“Are you an idiot, old woman, this isn’t a bluff. I’m more than willing to slaughter you, the girl, and the entire village to get that thing. You hand it over and you get to live a little longer.”

Of course, it _was_ a bluff. Kind of.

She’d gut the old woman, and the hapless priestess if they stood between her and her goal, probably. But as for the villagers? She could care less. It wasn’t like killing them would gain her anything.

Just to make sure the wind-bag knew she was serious though, she sprung at the girl, slashing out with her claws in a wide arc that split the earth at her feet, boiling away the moisture in the grass.

The little fool was gaping at her again, and Inuyami offered her a wry grin.

“Next shot’ll slice you in half.”

“You…you really just tried to kill me!” she babbled, somewhere between mortal offense and abject terror.

Inuyami rolled her eyes.

“I just said I was gonna, didn’t I? I don’t make a habit of talking out my ass.”

“I just broke your curse!”

“And I saved your life, what’s your damn point?”

“My point is that you are absolutely the rudest woman I have ever met!”

Inuyami covered her mouth as if that would disguise the bark of helpless laughter that spilled from between her fingers.

“That’s what you got a problem with? My lack of manners? Woman, you need to get your priorities straightened out.”

“N-now!” called one of the village men circling their little stand-off. “Shoot her!”

Inuyami shrugged away the arrows, most of them catching on her haori and shattering against the fur of the fire-rat.

“Who do you people think I am!” she snapped at them. “If you think I’m just gonna let you shoot me you’ve got another thing coming!”

Whirling around she leapt into the air and sent the men skittering back into the forest like mice, taking the heads of a pair of trees to emphasize her point.

Her claws never even got close, but you’d’ve thought they were inches away from evisceration the way they screamed.

She smirked, landing lightly on the stump of one tree.

She must have one hell of a reputation nowadays.

She turned to where the hapless priestess was pressed up against the trunk of a nearby tree.

“If you won’t hand it over quietly, then prepare yourself,” she warned the girl.

“For what?!”

“Inuyami, ye are careless, as always,” interjected the elder priestess. “I had a feeling it would come to this one day.”

Glancing back over her shoulder she flinched at the glow of spiritual power that filled the clearing, and pushed off from the ground, leaping straight up in order to get as far away from it as possible.

It was no use though.

Little pearls of holy energy flew toward her never striking her but forming a sort of chain of spiritual power around her neck.

Inuyami landed on the wide branch of a nearby tree. The light faded, without pain, Inuyami was relieved to find, and she lifted the necklace of polished beads and magatama gingerly.

“What the hell, old bag? You got a problem with the way I accessorize, or something?”

“Quickly, Kagome,” said the old priestess. “A word to tame her spirit!”

“A word? What word?”

“It matters not what it is! A word ye must call to subdue Inuyami!”

A low growl spilled from her throat as Inuyami realized what the beads were for. They were set with a kotodama spell to contain youkai.

She had to kill the girl before she said the word. But even as she sprung forward, she knew it was too late, the girl’s mouth was already moving.

“Sit!” screamed the girl, her eyes squeezed shut. 

Inches from her goal, the necklace flared with light and Inuyami yelped as she was yanked to the ground by the back of her neck and forced to kowtow with her belly and face pressed to the dirt.

Inuyami snarled and sat up.

The command only held on for an extra second, like a warning reminder not to attempt anymore funny business, and then she was free to move again.

Filling her claws with youki she tried to snap the string, but the beads flared with holy light again and the damned thing just. Would. Not. Break.

“Damn it!”

All around her the villagers were watching her struggle with naked fascination.

“Oh! She subdued her!”

“She subdued her quite handily!”

“What a blessed act!”

“It is useless, Inuyami,” said the old bag in a low, pleased voice. “The beads of subjugation cannot be removed by your power.”

“You smug bitch!”

Inuyami leapt for the elder priestess this time, hoping that killing the old woman would destroy her humiliating fucking spell.

“Kagome, the word,” said the old hag, completely unfazed.

“Sit!” snapped the girl, more firmly this time.

Once again, Inuyami was forced to the ground. Helpless to fight or even brace herself, as she smashed face first into the forest floor.

The old bag gave a satisfied nod at that.

“You miserable old witch!”

“Ye may curse all you like, Inuyami, it will do ye no good. As long as the spell is in place ye will not be allowed to do harm to the village, nor take possession of the Shikon Jewel,” she said. “Other than that, ye may do as ye please.”

But there was nothing that she could do to remove the spell.

Satisfied that Inuyami was appropriately cowed the old bag turned to the girl.

“Come child, we must bind your injuries.”

And just like that the fight was over.

The villagers all turned for home, following the priestesses. No longer worried because the evil hanyou had been properly subjugated.

Inuyami picked herself up off the ground with as much dignity as she could muster, which wasn’t much.

Subjugated.

After three lousy minutes of freedom.

And even if she left and never came near the village again, every human and youkai who ever caught a glimpse of the rosary around her neck would know it, because she’d be stuck with the damn things forever!

No holy person would risk unbinding a youkai.

No youkai would aid a hanyou.

There was only one other thing that might remove them, getting her hands on the Shikon Jewel and becoming full youkai.

She was powerful for a hanyou, more powerful than most full-blooded youkai. It wasn’t a stretch to imagine that with her natural strength augmented by the jewel she could free herself.

Inuyami summoned as much insouciance as possible and followed after the priestesses at a leisurely pace, hands tucked into the sleeves of her kimono to hide the way her fists clenched and unclenched.

It was the only option that made sense.

They’d have to sleep sometime, and they were more likely to underestimate her and let their guards down if she seemed cowed. At the same time, she couldn’t let some other enterprising youkai pull the same shit and steal her prize out from under her.

Plus, if she was lucky, her presence would annoy the crap out of the old bag.

Cheered by the thought she let herself into the old woman’s hut, ducking her head to avoid the demon repelling herbs hanging above her door.

The old priestess was already winding a strip of linen bandages around the younger girl’s wounds and the whole hut smelled like grease and herbs.

“Ye were very lucky child, else perhaps the jewel had some hand in regenerating your flesh. The wound is not deep and it does not appear that any of the centipede’s venom got in. Likely, it will not fester,” said the old woman.

“More’s the pity,” said Inuyami with a nasty smirk, making herself at home against the far wall of the hut.

She earned a glare for her trouble.

“What are you even still doing here?” the girl demanded.

“Isn’t it obvious?” she said, snorting. “I’m waiting for the jewel.”

The old woman sighed, setting aside her remedies and bandages.

“With the beads around her neck, Inuyami’s threat is diminished, but her willfulness is as strong as ever.”

“So, in other words, she’s a big fat pain in the neck.”

The old woman chuckled.

“Aye, a pain, and the first of many now that the Shikon Jewel has come again to reside in this village. Far worse than Mistress Centipede or Inuyami will come to claim it,” she explained.

“Worse than that monster?”

“Yes, child. And not just youkai. There are many humans with hearts more evil, still, and only the jewel has the power to make real their petty, grasping ambitions.”

“Shouldn’t someone have told you all this before they stuck the thing in your body?” Inuyami mused. “You’re acting like this is some big surprise.”

“So, what do you want it for then, the jewel?” asked the girl, giving her a curious look. “You’re plenty strong without it from what I can see. What power could the jewel give you that you don’t already have?”

“None of your damn business, that’s what.”

The old woman gave Inuyami a look, and turned back to the girl.

“She is a hanyou who wishes to become a full youkai.”

Inuyami couldn’t contain her glare.

“You know what, you can shut your damn mouth,” she snapped. “I’m sick of hearing some dried-up witch I just met talk like she knows me!”

The old bag let out a small breath, like Inuyami was being purposefully slow on the uptake.

“Do ye not remember? Well, I suppose I have changed since ye knew me,” she said, moving across the room to add more wood to the fire. “I am Kaede, younger sister to Kikyou.”

“Kaede? What the hell are you talking about? Kaede is just a little kid.”

The last time Inuyami had seen the brat she’d been forced to sit quietly while the girl babbled about all the medicinal properties of the flowers she was braiding into her hair.

“Fifty years have passed, and I have long since grown old,” she said.

Inuyami twitched her nose, taking in the old woman’s scent.

“Huh,” she said, surprised again. “Whaddaya know. If you’re this old Kikyou must be on her last legs, though I guess humans can’t help it.”

“Inuyami, Kikyou never had a chance to grow old. Kikyou died,” said old Kaede with terrible bluntness. “Even as she loosed the arrow that bound ye to that tree, she bled from a terrible wound…her final words were: ‘Take the Shikon Jewel and burn it with my body. I will take it with me to the Netherworld.’”

Inuyami forced herself to take a breath. And to let it out slowly.

“Hah,” she barked, it sounded forced even to her own ears. “One less thing for me to worry about.”

“I wouldn’t let my guard down just yet, if I were ye,” said Kaede, still not looking at her. “I am now sure that Kagome is my sister’s reincarnation.”

Inuyami shot the girl a narrow-eyed look through the curtain of her hair. She was slack-jawed and dumbfounded, more emotion twisting her features in the moments it took her to process that statement than Kikyou had displayed in the year-and-a-half they’d known each other.

“Eh? What do you mean, you’re sure?” asked the girl. “How can you be sure about that kind of thing?”

“If the evidence of your great spiritual power, and your uncanny resemblance were not enough, I would consider the fact that ye carried the Shikon Jewel within your body undeniable proof.”

Inuyami found herself agreeing, though she didn’t voice the thought out-loud. The whole situation reeked of Kikyou’s stubborn commitment to her duty.

The reincarnation herself didn’t seem too convinced though.

Kaede seemed to have the same impression because she was quick to say: “In any case, child, for now I think ye should rest.”

She handed the girl a futon and helped her lay it out by the hearth, and the girl was asleep almost before her head hit the pillow.

Inuyami couldn’t believe the kid’s audacity, falling asleep so peacefully in the same room as someone who’d just tried to kill her. She really was naïve.

“Where the hell did you find this brat?” Inuyami asked Kaede, not really expecting an answer.

To her surprise though, after a moment Kaede spoke.

“She was drawn to this place while travelling to her homeland. Before today I doubt the child had any knowledge of her power. The return of the jewel, your freedom from the seal, Kikyou’s soul reborn. All of this is portentous. I like it not.”

Inuyami scoffed.

“The whole nature of power is that it invites conflict, old bag,” she told, Kaede, getting to her feet and making for the door. “You don’t need to pretend like there’s something special about it.”

“Are ye leaving then?”

“You’re not getting rid of me that easily, old woman,” she said. “You’re safe from me tonight. For old times sake, so get some sleep while you can. Tomorrow I won’t hold back.”

And with that, Inuyami ducked out of the hut and into the cool night air, tipping her face up to the sky. 

Old Kaede’s hut stood practically alone at the edge of the village, at the base of the steps leading up to the new shrine.

Inuyami jumped and landed lightly on the nearest archway, standing sentinel with the full moon at her back.

Fifty years she’d been asleep, but it didn’t feel like it.

It felt like she’d just run down this hillside that afternoon.

Like she’d shut her eyes for just a moment.

But it hadn’t been a moment. It had been almost a whole human lifetime.

Kikyou had been dead for so long she had a fucking reincarnation running around causing trouble.

It shouldn’t have hurt.

Kikyou had betrayed her, in the end, all that big talk about the peaceful, happy life they could have together in this village once the jewel was destroyed was just that, talk.

At the first sign the Inuyami wouldn’t give in and make her stupid wish, Kikyou had turned on her.

Kikyou had wanted the jewel to disappear, and she was convinced that if Inuyami wished herself fully human instead of fully youkai, the jewel would be purified and do just that.

Their friendship had never been more than a means to an end on her part…but Inuyami couldn’t just extinguish those feelings.

Not when the woman herself wasn’t around to hate.

She could almost kind of understand how the weight of her duty had driven Kikyou to her scheme, especially if her soul was being summoned from beyond the grave to continue her work, but she wasn’t anywhere near ready to forgive her. She didn’t know if she ever would be.

But there was nowhere for that resentment to go, not really.

She probably wouldn’t even kill the brat Kaede for chaining her up like a mutt with her holy beads.

Inuyami huffed at the open air, a rueful grimace twisting her face.

Some fierce youkai she’d turned out to be. Always a soft-touch for humans.

She was glad when a low rasping caw caught her attention.

Her ears swivelled to triangulate the sound and her gaze narrowed as she watched a flock of youkai crows watch old Kaede’s hut.

Keh.

Already the vermin were being drawn by the scent of the jewel.

She cracked her knuckles and flared her youki in warning.

Whatever else was going on, one thing was clear, she still needed that damn gem, and now stinking low-life vulture was going to take it from her.

All at once, she sprang, landing among the crows and slashing at them with her claws.

The flock dispersed in a sudden cacophony of taunting caws and rustling feathers, but they were quick to scatter winging away towards the forest, probably hoping to find a safer roost.

Inuyami flicked a shred of black feather off her claw and glowered out over the treetops.

Her instincts rebelled at the thought of letting them go free.

This was _her_ range after all. Or at least it had been fifty years ago and it would be again once she had a moment the refresh her claim on it.

But the gem couldn’t be left unprotected, or it really would get stolen right out from under her.


	4. The Shattering

The reincarnation slept through the morning and into the early afternoon.

Old Kaede said some shit about her needing the rest to heal and leaving her be, and so Inuyami followed the old bag from hut to hut, roof to roof, as she conferred with people about what the hell they were going to do now that the Shikon priestess had been reborn and their village was once-again going to be a hot-bed of youkai attacks.

Funnily, a good number of the villagers seemed, not pleased, exactly, but maybe honored, that their village was about to become significant. Like hardship and prestige went hand in hand or some bullshit.

Eventually, Inuyami couldn’t listen to it anymore and instead parked herself in the highest branches of the tallest tree she could find and still be in the village proper.

These villagers, pretending that suffering was noble. It wasn’t noble to sleep out in the cold cause your den was rooted out by a bigger monster. It wasn’t an honorable sacrifice to go hungry, or be badly injured for something you didn’t choose.

If it had been, they’d’ve made her a minor deity when she was still a brat and been done with it.

Still, if there was one thing that Inuyami had learned it was that humans were stubborn. If they were determined to think that having that hapless reincarnation stumbling all over their normal lives was a blessing then there really wasn’t anything she could do to change their minds.

Kaede had worked fast to ensure that the girl would be accepted as a miko and Kikyou’s reincarnation so that the villagers would assist her in protecting the Shikon Jewel, and it hadn’t taken much for them to decide to put their faith in her.

Case in point, the girl, when she finally hauled her ass out of bed, was immediately laden down with offerings of daikon radish, dried fish, and sweet-smelling persimmons.

The girl made a beeline for Inuyami’s tree, and tossed one of the persimmons at her.

Inuyami caught it. Careful not to puncture the skin with her claws, and sat up a little straighter on her branch.

“What’s this?”

“That’s part of your share,” she said, artlessly cheerful, as she settled in at the base of the tree, selecting a fruit of her own. “The villagers gave them to me for defeating Mistress Centipede or something, and I think we both know that I couldn’t have done it without you.”

“That’s for sure,” Inuyami agreed.

“Come down and have lunch with me,” suggested the girl. “I promise I don’t bite.”

The girl’s whole attitude was suspicious.

She didn’t have any reason to seek out Inuyami, or to desire her company and want to share food with her. They’d known each other a grand-total of a few hours and been fighting for most of that time after all.

Still, Inuyami could see the wink of the jewel, hanging from a familiar string around the girl’s neck.

After a moment of deliberation, she jumped down and settled in the grass across from the reincarnation, tucking her legs underneath herself.

As the girl dug in to one of the fruits with obvious gusto, Inuyami applied herself to using her claws to cut hers into neat slices and asked: “So, what the hell are you plotting?”

“Plotting?” said the girl, her smile tipping up on the one side. “Nothing really, it’s just that you don’t like me, right?”

“Damn right,” agreed Inuyami, popping a slice of persimmon into her mouth and relishing in the honeyed sweetness.

“Because I look like this Kikyou person.”

“That’s one of the reasons,” said Inuyami, pointedly not fingering the beads of subjugation that were only mostly hidden under the collar of her kimono.

“Well there you go,” she said. “I hate that you hate me for something I didn’t do and I want you to see that I’m not much like Kikyou, so there’s no reason we can’t get along better. That’s what I’m ‘plotting’.”

Inuyami didn’t know what her face was doing but she was sure it wasn’t doing enough to display the utter incredulity that had just overtaken her.

“Do you have a death wish or are you just stupid?” she asked. “You do understand that one of these days I’m going to kill you and take the jewel, right?”

“Are you though,” mused the girl. “I wonder…”

“Are you doubting my skill here, or my resolve,” she grated out, teeth clenched. “Cause I’m more than willing to test your theory right here right now.”

The girl pointed.

“That,” she said. “You keep saying things like ‘don’t test me’ or ‘one of these days’ but the thing is I think that if you were really going to murder me in cold blood and take the jewel from me, you would’ve already done it. While I was sleeping would have been the perfect time to snap my neck or claw me open before I could do anything to stop you—but you didn’t.”

Inuyami scowled.

“I told the old woman, you just got a free pass last night cause of our history,” she snapped. “Don’t expect that it’s always going to be like that.”

“What about this morning though,” the woman pointed out, all innocent and reasonable. “The night was over. I was still sleeping. You could have killed me then, but instead Lady Kaede said that you followed her around the village all morning and have been moping around in this tree since then.”

There was nothing Inuyami could really say to that, and she could feel her cheeks heating up just a little as the reincarnation looked at her with her big brown eyes.

“You don’t know anything,” she said, getting to her feet.

“I know that you don’t want to murder me,” the girl called after her.

“Maybe I didn’t before, but you ever thought your yammering might change my mind?”

The girl had the gall to laugh just a little at that, and Inuyami could practically feel her hackles rise.

“Sorry,” she said. “Sorry, I’m not looking down on you, I swear. I do get it. You want the jewel, but I can’t just give it to you, and you don’t want to take it with excessive force. I think it’s very honorable of you, actually. And obviously I don’t want to be killed.”

She said that last bit like it was an afterthought.

Inuyami shook her head a bit. This crazy reincarnation really wasn’t scared of her at all. It might have been refreshing if it weren’t also so damn annoying. Especially when she thought about the last human woman who hadn’t been afraid of her.

Inuyami’s ears twitched.

All of a sudden, the effort of staying still felt oppressive, and her skin crawled with the need to run the fuck away.

She tucked her hands into her sleeves and stared out across the river to the forest.

“You realize you can’t afford to take it that easy, right?” she said, watching the movement of the wind through the trees. “Now that your body isn’t masking the power of the jewel all kinds of demons will come for it. It’s already begun.”

There was a little spike of fear in the girl’s scent at that. About time too.

Inuyami glanced over her shoulder and saw that the reincarnation was staring at her again with her big brown calf eyes.

“If you think you can stay out of trouble for a few hours, I’m gonna go knock off some of the competition.”

“What you mean there here already?” the girl squeaked.

Inuyami rolled her eyes.

“There are plenty of bottom feeders that have moved into this territory while I’ve been asleep,” she said. “But I have no intention of letting them stay there, or letting anyone else get their hands on my jewel.”

“Right,” said the girl slowly, still staring at her like she was trying to figure something out.

“So, stick close to the old hag for a few hours while I do that,” instructed Inuyami.

“Right,” agreed the girl, her face clearing into a small smile. “Of course. You go do that; we’ll be fine.”

“I don’t care if _you’re_ fine,” grumbled Inuyami, her ears twitching. “Just don’t let anyone get the jewel.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ve got it already,” said the reincarnation, flapping her hand in Inuyami’s general direction. “Go. The jewel will still be safe when you get back.”

“It had better be.”

But rather that stand around flapping her lips some more Inuyami leapt across the river and took off running for the forest.

***

Kagome watched the silver blur that was Inuyami until she disappeared into the treeline.

So that was that. She thought to herself, eating another persimmon as she waited for Inuyami to get farther away.

If youkai were already gathering, ready to kill her and take the jewel the way Inuyami was not, then it was time to act.

Thanks to Kaede and Mistress Centipede she knew where the Bone-Eater’s Well was and how to get there from the village and the journey should be a lot safer now, in full daylight, then it had been yesterday night.

Kagome was reasonably sure that if the magical well was the bridge between her time and this time that the only way to get back home would be to jump in that well, pass through the floaty blackness, and be deposited home.

Of course, there was always the chance that she’d end up in some other strange time-period, but at this point it was a risk she was going to have to take.

She’d decided earlier that morning that either way she’d have take the jewel back with her.

She felt a little bad, misleading Inuyami like that, but there was no way she would let Kagome go through with her plan. Inuyami might not have been willing to let other youkai get their hands on the jewel, but she also wasn’t willing to give up her own chance to use it.

The jewel would be much safer in her own time. There weren’t any youkai in the modern era and, after all, it had been kept peaceful and protected in her body for sixteen years without a single trouble.

She would kill three birds with one stone this way. The jewel would be kept from dangerous youkai. The village would be free from the danger brought forward by the jewel. And Kagome could fulfill the duty of her apparently restless soul and protect it while also going home.

Kagome nodded to herself.

This was one-hundred percent the best possible plan.

And she probably didn’t have very long to put it into action.

Moving quickly, she scooped up the villagers’ offerings and returned them to old Kaede’s home so that she and Inuyami could enjoy them and then set off along the path she’d run last night.

In the daylight the eerie green glow was reduced to practically nothing, and Kagome had to really concentrate to see the light that lingered among the trees.

Somehow in the warm sunshine that glow was a lot less creepy and a lot more beautiful.

Kagome found the little path that the village men had carried her along. It was obstructed here and there by destruction left by Mistress Centipede, fallen trees, and deep gouges in the earth, but thinking about her position relative to the well and the tree Kagome could almost envision where she would be if this was the modern era.

In her own time this was a station-front shopping district and the path led into a residential area filled with houses and convenience stores and a small post office.

It was slow going, but eventually the clearing with the dry well came into view.

“Found it!” Kagome cheered to herself, breaking into a jog.

Before she could even get clear of the forest, she was caught.

A grip like a vice clamped around her arm, and a big smelly hand clapped over her mouth to stifle her instinctive scream.

“Quiet!”

The voice was rough and male and accompanied by foul breath.

Kagome squirmed in his grasp.

If she could just break free of his grip the well was right there! All she had to do was be faster.

Thinking quickly, Kagome stomped hard on his sandaled foot, grinding the hard, sharp heel of her loafer into the unprotected flesh.

“Augh! You little bitch!” the man swore as she squirmed free.

Only to come face to face with the point of a sword.

Kagome glanced around wildly, but she was surrounded.

The men, all big and smelly and wearing mismatched armour over their bare skin, all had a sword, either in hand or at their belt, and a few of them had other weapons. Kagome spotted a bow and quiver of arrows as well as a small club.

“You’re coming with us,” said the man in front of her, leering. “Dead or alive, your choice.”

“Not much of a choice,” Kagome said, more bravely than she felt.

“No, it isn’t, is it?”

The men all laughed as the man behind her gave her a stinging slap on her rump with the flat of his sword, catching her off guard, and the one in front of her hauled her up over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

Kagome’s eyes watered but she bit her tongue to keep from whimpering out-loud. She didn’t want to give these men the satisfaction.

They were probably bandits, she realized, fearfully, or maybe mercenaries.

Human criminals.

She needed to escape, and quickly, there were only so many things a group like this could want with a woman alone and all of them were bad.

The bandits brought her into the hall of an abandoned temple where there was some sort of impromptu drinking party going on. There were five more roughly dressed bandits who were all red-faced and leering and there were weapons lying around carelessly.

The temple itself had been ransacked and was falling apart in places but only had one room, so there was no chance of Kagome being left alone and unwatched.

“Gehehe, it’s a woman!”

“A woman!” cheered another man.

“It’s been so long since we had a woman.”

Kagome’s heart sunk somewhere into the vicinity of her stomach, and she swallowed hard in an attempt to bring some moisture back to her mouth.

She’d never been so afraid. Not even when Mistress Centipede had torn into her side.

In that moment she hadn’t had the time to be afraid. She hadn’t had the time to think about what might happen because everything had happened in a great big rush.

Her captor dumped her to the ground unceremoniously, and Kagome cried out when she hit the ground hard.

“We caught her, just like you told us to, Boss.”

Boss?

Kagome looked up and gasped.

In front of her was the biggest man she had ever seen. He was something like eight feet tall and muscled like a pro wrestler, dressed in armour that barely covered his…parts.

He was also as pale as a corpse, holding a cup of sake with a vacant expression and drooling a bit out of the corner of his mouth.

“Geh…gehu…”

The man, the Boss, spoke in a voice that was more like a rattling cough.

“Jewel…”

“What was that, Boss?”

“Give me…jewel…”

A chill crawled down her spine.

Even though Inuyami seemed to think that the jewel was only under threat from youkai, Kaede had spoken last night of ‘men with evil in their hearts’ who would be after the jewel as well.

The Boss didn’t just look evil, he looked downright dangerous, and Kagome didn’t see how she’d be able to keep him from getting the jewel. And she also didn’t want to think about what might happen once he had it.

Surely, he wouldn’t be able to keep it? Not from youkai like Inuyami or Mistress Centipede who were stronger and faster than any human. But what if the jewel made him stronger, the way it had made Mistress Centipede stronger?

Kagome was very sure she didn’t want to be around after that happened. Of course, she didn’t want to be around _now_ , but it wasn’t like she had a whole lot of options.

“Gehu…gehu…” he coughed again, tilting the cup of sake toward his mouth.

The sake dribbled all down his front and down the neck of his armour but he didn’t seem to notice.

No wonder he smelled so awful.

The men that had captured her were fresh as daisies in comparison.

“Geh…gehu…jewel…Shikon jewel…” he rasped at her, lurching up from his seat on the bare altar and swaying toward her.

He grabbed her by the collar with one hand and groped down her front with one sticky hand until he caught hold of the string that held the jewel. In one motion he snapped the string and dumped her back on the floor like so much trash.

Kagome lay where she fell and fought the urge to cry.

She couldn’t just let the bandits have the jewel. Something deep inside her rebelled at the thought of it. But what could she do?

She had no doubt that the bandits intended to kill her eventually, but she wasn’t eager to invite them to do it sooner rather than later. She’d meant what she’d said to Inuyami last night. She wanted to live.

If that meant letting this brute have the jewel, then she would probably just let him. She’d survive to escape and get back to her own time.

Inuyami could hunt down this bandit and kill him. Kagome had a feeling the hanyou wouldn’t have the same qualms about killing him that she did about killing Kagome and Kaede and, in all honesty, Kagome would rather Inuyami have the jewel then this guy.

Just as she had this thought though the Boss began to speak again.

“Bring her…”

Kagome was dragged to her feet by one of the minions.

“Hold…her…”

The Boss had produced a shining sword from somewhere and was swaying toward her again.

“Aw Boss, do you gotta kill her?” whined one of the minions drunkenly.

“Kill her…” rasped the Boss. “Dieee…”

Kagome shut her eyes tightly as the Boss swung his sword and was surprised when the man beside her started screaming.

Gingerly she opened one eye and immediately wished she could close it again.

The Boss had missed her by a whole foot and the minion standing next to her had had his arm lopped off at the shoulder and had fallen to the floor. Bleeding to death.

The minion who was holding onto her pulled her closer.

“Uh, Boss, what are you thinking?” he said, backing up a bit.

The Boss swayed from side to side as he struggled to yank his sword out of the floor.

All around them the men who’d been drinking had stood up and were watching the scene unfold nervously.

“Hold…her…” the Boss instructed again.

He took another swipe, and the man who had a hold of Kagome let her go in order to duck. The two men standing behind him weren’t that lucky and they fell with their throats cut to the bone, making horrible gurgling noises.

Kagome ducked under the Boss’ arm and scrambled for a spear that was propped up against the far wall. Holding it out in front of her.

She’d never held a spear before in her entire life of course, and she was probably doing it wrong, but she felt better with a weapon in her hand.

“Stay back!” she warned. “Don’t come any closer!”

The Boss of course, didn’t pay her any mind.

He swung his sword and cut her spear clean in half down its wooden shaft. As he lifted the sword to swing again, Kagome threw the broken pieces at his face and ducked his wild slash.

By her foot was the Shikon jewel, dropped in the confusion, and Kagome picked it up and held on tightly.

The sword cut through something important and all around them arches collapsed, blocking the door.

One of the bandits was caught under the debris, and Kagome moved quickly to help him up before his Boss could take another swing and add another dead body to the pile. The floor under her shoes was already tacky with drying blood. 

She staggered a bit under his weight, but he was able to walk where she led him, leaning on her like a crutch.

“Boss, what are you doing?” demanded one of the minions.

“Can’t you see there’s something wrong with him!” demanded Kagome, a flash of hot irritation cutting through the abject terror. “Why don’t you pick up a weapon and help me?”

“R-right,” he said.

He pulled his own rusted sword from his belt and held it out in front of him. They ducked another wild slash that sent the boss staggering into the wall.

“It’s no use,” said another minion. “There’s no chance we can beat the Boss. He’s the strongest. That’s why he’s the Boss.”

“We need an exit,” Kagome told them. “Can you knock out that wall?”

The wood was already cracked and three of the strongest looking of the remaining bandits drove their shoulders into it, hard. The wood creaked, but held.

“It’s no good Boss,” called one of the minions.

“Who’re you calling ‘Boss’?” Kagome demanded, yanking herself and the injured man she was carrying out of the way.

We can’t keep this up, Kagome thought to herself grimly.

She was dripping with sweat and it had only been a few minutes of carrying this guy around. If they didn’t get out of this temple, they’d be cut down one by one.

The Shikon jewel was smooth and warm in her hand.

An idea wormed its way into Kagome’s head. And boy was it a bad one.

“Take him,” she said, handing off the injured man to the nearest minion.

“You got it, Boss!”

Kagome grit her teeth but didn’t comment. Better they listen to her than make things worse.

“Hey!” she called to the real Boss, waving the jewel. “You want this?”

“Shikon…jewel…” croaked the Boss, swaying towards her.

“Go get it!” she said tossing the jewel over the top of the pile of rubble blocking the door.

“Boss!” cried one of the minions. “Look out!”

Too late Kagome saw that the original Boss had closed the distance between them. She could hear the sword whistling through the air toward her and she squeezed her eyes shut praying for another near miss.

Behind her there was an almighty crash, and Kagome felt the wind stir her hair and skirt.

Except, when she opened her eyes, it wasn’t the wind at all. It was Inuyami!

Somehow, the hanyou had found her!

The Boss’ sword shattered on the material of Inuyami’s kimono and she was quick to take advantage of his confusion knocking him down with two lightning quick strikes.

“Inuyami! You—”

“Where’s the jewel?” she demanded, crossing her arms over her chest. “And didn’t I tell you to stay with Kaede? What the hell!”

“I’m sorry, was it my fault I was kidnapped?”

It kind of was her fault, Kagome could admit, at least in the privacy of her own mind.

If she’d done as Inuyami had asked she’d’ve probably been fine. But it wasn’t like she’d asked to be taken captive by smelly bandits!

“Damn, you reek!” Inuyami said, turning to the Boss. “Smells like you’ve been dead a while, big nasty bastard. So, who’s pulling your strings?”

As if to answer her the strap of the Boss’ armour snapped revealing a big bloody hole in his chest above his heart. Inside that hole, three red eyes gleamed and something like a crow poked it’s bloody beak out from inside the Boss’ chest.

“Heh. Shoulda guessed.”

The crow let out a defiant screech, and the Boss wobbled even more drunkenly than before.

“What you wanna bet that bird carved out his still beating heart and made itself a bloody nest.”

“I knew there was something wrong,” Kagome said. “But I never would’ve guessed it was this…he’s like a puppet.”

“Carrion crows never do their own fighting, not when there’s a dead body around, anyway,” Inuyami informed her rolling up her sleeve. “They’re not that tough, but they are fucking disgusting.”

She sprung at the Boss, digging her claws into the hole that made up the three-eyed crow’s perch.

The crow gave a alarmed croak and split the Boss open down the middle of his back, flying up into the rafters of the groaning temple, circling once and escaping out the narrow gap between the entrance and the top of the pile of rubble.

Right where Kagome had thrown the jewel.

“It’s getting away!”

Inuyami sighed.

“It’s not worth the time it would take to hunt down. In case you haven’t noticed the world is full of nasties like that and I can’t fight every single one.”

“Inuyami!”

“Hey, if you wanna go kill it. Be my guest.”

“I’m trying to tell you! It’s going after the jewel, stupid!”

“What!” Inuyami shrieked. “Say that sooner!”

“I was trying!”

Inuyami seized her by the wrist and dragged her out of the hole in the side of the temple just in time to watch the crow swallow the jewel.

“Fucking, shit!” she swore, as the crow took flight. “Come on! I have an idea.”

In short order Kagome found herself dragged onto Inuyami’s back with her arms full of a bow and a quiver of arrows. With a great leap Inuyami propelled them into the air and it was only her strong grip on the backs of Kagome’s legs that kept her from sliding off.

They crossed the stretch of trees between the temple and the road back towards the village in three bounds, as Inuyami alighted for the briefest of moments on the top branches of the trees.

It was a good thing Kagome was fine with heights.

“What are you waiting for!” Inuyami demanded as they touched down on the road and they began to run. “Shoot it down!”

“You have got to be kidding! Me? I’ve never shot a bow in my life!”

“Listen! Kikyou was a master archer, you’re meant to be that woman’s reincarnation, right? It’s just like using your reiki, you should have a sense of what to do.”

That seemed a little far-fetched to Kagome, but what did she know?

“Alright,” she said. “Here goes nothing then.”

Kagome fumbled with the arrows until she got one free of the quiver and the little notch settled against the string. She drew it back the way she’d seen it done in movies, until her arms shook with the effort.

Kikyou, she begged, lend me your strength.

Then, sighting the bird down the arrowhead, she let it loose.

The arrow flew straight at least but it wavered half-way between Kagome and the crow, wobbled a few more feet and then fluttered uselessly to the ground.

“Jeez,” scoffed Inuyami. “You’re such a fucking klutz.”

“I don’t see you shooting at that thing!”

“Keh! That crow, eats human flesh, woman!” snapped Inuyami. “It’s headed right for the village you swore to protect and it’s getting bigger! Use some god damned conviction!”

Kagome bit down on her lip and grabbed another arrow.

Inuyami was right.

This was her fault. Her responsibility. The sworn duty of her second-hand soul. She didn’t need to kill the crow, just get it out of the air where Inuyami could rip it to shreds.

She tried to pull the string back even further. She was shooting straight she just needed a bit more distance…

“Hit it!” she begged.

The crow let a warm current of air lift it even further out of reach and the arrow missed by about a metre.

It gave a triumphant screech. It’s voice echoing as it grew bigger, it’s bony tail whipping back and forth through the air.

“It’s no good!” Kagome said. “What do we do?”

“Fuck it, you’re useless. Stay here!”

Inuyami dumped Kagome off her back unceremoniously and ran at the crow, gathering herself for a powerful leap.

The crow evaded her swipe, but as Kagome sprinted after them at her meagre human pace, she couldn’t deny that Inuyami was running faster and leaping higher, and tried not to feel put out at being left behind.

She dodged through a field as Inuyami took to the trees once more, and sprinted through the village.

The crow swooped low over the bridge and grabbed a little boy by the back of his kimono.

The boy’s mother screamed something that might have been the child’s name, reaching up desperately. But the crow was already beyond a mere human’s reach.

“Inuyami!” Kagome cried.

“I see it!” the hanyou called back, her claws flashing.

Did she really intend to attack the crow with a toddler in the way?

“Wait! The boy!”

“ _Iron Reaver Soul Stealer_!”

The crow shredded under the attack, of course, and the boy fell the few metres from the air into the river with a shout.

“Stupid!” Kagome shouted again, running along the bank.

She wasn’t sure whether she was referring to herself or Inuyami, but she quickly toed out of her loafers and socks, leapt up onto the nearest large rock and took a running dive into the river.

Thank god she’d taken all those lessons.

The river’s current was strong but moving at a diagonal Kagome was able to catch up to the boy and tow him back to shore with minimal difficulty.

“I’ve got you!” she told him. “Just hold tight to me!”

Kagome staggered out of the river, and handed the shivering boy into the arms of his mother, who clutched him to her breast.

“Thank you, Priestess!”

“Oi!” Inuyami called from the opposite bank. “Where the hell is the jewel!”

Kagome couldn’t believe her nerve! A kid had almost died and all she could think of was that stupid jewel!

Kagome threw Inuyami the dirtiest glare she could manage, but the hanyou only crossed her arms and scowled back.

“Come on! Quickly!”

As the crow burst back out of the river, it’s body once again mostly intact, Kagome remembered that the Shikon jewel would regenerate the crow endlessly until it was recovered.

Whoops.

The crow let out a furious cry and took to the sky in a limping, lopsided manner. Missing a foot and a chunk of its tail.

“It’s getting away!” Inuyami shouted. “Its running now, it won’t stop until it’s fully absorbed the jewel!”

They had to do something, but the crow youkai was quickly rising out of the reach of even Inuyami.

Still clutched onto the little boy’s kimono with preternatural strength, the crow’s missing foot began to shudder and shake.

Trying to return to the whole.

Trying to return…

“Can I borrow that?” she asked one of the village men who had a bow and a basket full of fish strapped to his back.

“Me?”

Without waiting for an answer Kagome grabbed it out of his slack hands.

“Thanks!”

Working quickly, Kagome yanked the tie off her school uniform and used it to tie the foot securely to the shaft of an arrow. This one was longer and straighter than the bandits’ arrows and Kagome hope that meant it would fly truer.

Concentrating just on her aim, Kagome focused all of her will on getting the arrow to its destination, the fading twinkle of light that peaked out from under the wing of the carrion crow.

The crow’s foot would be drawn by the power of the jewel, it was almost guaranteed to hit even if Kagome’s aim was off…she hoped.

“Hit it!”

She let the arrow fly and it flew, straight and true, and glowing with her own spiritual power.

Even when the crow tried to rise higher to evade it, the arrow followed the crow, drawn in by the jewel, until, with a meaty thunk, the arrow tore through the bird and it fell apart in messy pieces that dissolved away to motes of dust before it ever hit the ground.

Before Kagome could celebrate though, a great flash of light burst into the sky from the centre of the crows crumbling body, and Kagome had the awful feeling that something terrible had happened even as the light disappeared and Kagome watched the faint twinkle of the Shikon jewel fall into the trees beyond the village.

**Author's Note:**

> I needed more Female Inuyasha and less fetishization of dub-con and this happened. Hit me up with questions, suggestions and comments because I live for that shit.


End file.
